Advanced Poker Strategy: Essential Techniques to Improve Your Play

Poker is a bit like golf: it’s easy to understand the basics, but getting better takes a lot of skill and practice.

This doesn’t mean you’re in for years of study and hard work, however, because you can distill advanced poker strategy into five easy-to-understand buckets. Once you’ve got to grips with these, you’ll be much better placed to hold your own at the table.

Let’s introduce you to five advanced poker strategy tips you can take online or use against your buddies at your regular home game.

1. Play Tight but Aggressive

It’s tempting to splash around in every pot because you’re here to play poker, not fold and watch everyone else have fun. But your first advanced poker strategy is to reduce the number of hands you’re willing to play.

It sounds obvious, but playing only strong starting hands and folding tempting but weaker hands means you won’t lose your chips in a hurry. But this only works well if you play aggressively when you do get involved in a hand.

Playing aggressively can force others to make mistakes, even lay down better hands, something that’s possible because they respect your raises.

2. Positional Awareness

Always be aware of your position at the table relative to the dealer button. The later your position, the more hands you can get involved in because fewer players are left to act after you.

If you play out of position, perhaps from under the gun, you’ll need to bet first before seeing what anyone else will do. Players acting behind can then put you to the test by playing back aggressively.

Of course, if you have a premium hand in early position, put in an aggressive raise. But if you get callers and the community cards look unkind, don’t be afraid to throw away your cards.

As Kenny Rogers famously sang, you’ve got to know when to hold’em, know when to fold’em.

3. Pot Odds and Expected Value

These two concepts sound complicated, but they are easy to understand and are an essential part of your early advanced poker strategy learning.

Pot odds is the ratio of the current size of a pot to the cost of making a call. Let’s say after the flop, the pot is 100, and you must bet 20 to call – that’s a 4:1 ratio, which is more than enough odds to call even if you don’t have a made hand but are chasing something like a straight or a flush.

Expected value (or EV) is your potential profitability from a play, or how much you realistically expect to win at showdown.

Together, pot odds and EV give you a solid indication of whether you should continue with a hand. 

4. Bluff Selectively and With Purpose

Most new players think bluffing is a common part of poker. While it is powerful, you must do it selectively and only when you have a realistic expectation that your opponent will fold.

If you suspect another player will call you down, don’t bluff: you’ll have to show your rubbish, losing hand at showdown.

Consider semi-bluffing, where you don’t have a made hand yet, but are on a draw. If everyone folds, you win the pot, but if someone calls, you can still make your straight or flush if the cards land in your favor.

Bluffing selectively without getting caught out adds to your table image as a solid player who is not to be messed with.

5. Always Observe and Adapt to Opponents’ Patterns

Don’t blindly play the same way against all players. Instead, adapt your plays to other players’ styles. For example, don’t try and bluff a “calling station.” If a player who hasn’t played a hand all night suddenly raises, run for the hills. And if your opponent is playing in every pot, be more aggressive if you’re in a hand with them.

This is not just about exploiting weaknesses: it means mixing up your plays occasionally so other players cannot get a solid read on you. 

Try Advanced Poker Strategy for Yourself

Adopt these five advanced poker strategy tips, and you’ll be well-placed to score more success at the poker table. Nothing beats trying poker for yourself and building up experience, so look at the casinos we recommend here at YouBet.com to get involved in some poker action.

Also, have a read through our poker news section for more articles to help with your poker game.

Good luck at the tables!